Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana & Sigourney Weaver
Stunning effects and use of 3D makes Avatar the ground breaking blockbuster James Cameron promised the film to be with it being incredibly impressive and entertaining in spite of a fairly predicable and average plotline.
Approximately 14 years in the making and requiring technological advancements in special effects so sophisticated that, director, James Cameron had to build them himself, Avatar finally reaches the big screen utilising the latest in CGI and 3D effects to present a world and a film experience beyond anything yet seen in cinemas and like Cameron’s previous films such as Terminator, Terminator 2 and Titanic, pushing forward the future of effects driven blockbusters. The resulting film is certainly impressive visually with CGI people and creatures as realistic look as live action and 3D used well enough to make the film’s environment and its action sequences truly breathtaking however, the story on which Avatar is based is still fairly clichéd in plotting and dialogue but this is more than made up for by the sheer spectacle of the film.
It is 2154 and soldier Jake Sully (Worthington) who lost the use of his legs in a previous battle is given the chance to walk again in a new body when, following the death of his twin brother, he is enlisted to take his brother’s place in the Avatar Program which will allow him control of an alien body with which to engage and negotiate with an alien population called the Na’vi on an alien world which possesses valuable minerals the human race needs. Initially sent in by his military commander to infiltrate the Na’vi and find a way to get them to relocate their home for the human’s mining operation, Sully finds himself coming to know and love the Na’vi people after meeting a female Na’vi named Neytiri (Saldana). When it becomes obvious that Na’vi will not relocate, Sully is torn between helping the Na’vi survive an oncoming military assault to remove them by force and with his loyalty to his own race and the promise of his commander to restore his ability to walk in his human body.
The plot of Avatar won’t be what audiences really remember the film for and the plot itself is actually fairly average and follows the well worn tale of: Man sent to infiltrate foreign culture, falls in love with a woman there and the culture, finds himself torn between love and duty. Fortunately, as average as the plot itself and some of the dialogue is, the story is satisfactory enough to allow Cameron to develop a new world, that of Pandora, with which to use his advancements in CGI and 3D effects and the visuals are certainly stunning. With much of the film surrounding the Na’vi people, a race of tall, blue skinned aliens, it is important that they appear realistic and they do. Solving the dead eye problem that has plagued many a CGI humanoid character in earlier blockbuster films, Avatar’s CGI effects, particularly in bringing the Na’vi to life, are impressive with the Na’vi able to display a full range of expressions which is helped that several are made to resemble the actors providing their voices like Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. The use of 3D in Avatar is also stunning and rather than used for cheap, gimmicky ‘shots out at the audience’ moments, it is instead utilised to give a greater sense of depth and scale to the world of Pandora which looks and feels as close to a realistic representation of an alien environment as audiences are ever likely to experience and with the use of CGI and 3D complementing each other effectively to make Avatar’s many action sequences truly breathtaking.
While character’s in Avatar are very much stereotypical or straying close to stereotype such as Stephen Lang’s tough-as-nails Colonel Quaritch or Giovanni Ribisi’s greedy corporate leader Parker Selfridge, the performances of the cast are still generally enjoyable. Sam Worthington makes a satisfying leading man as Jake Sully whether in the live action role of Sully’s human self or in the voice acting with his Avatar counterpart. There are a few moments where Worthington is good at portraying Sully’s conflicting emotions from being able to move from his fully functioning Avatar body to his own, crippled body which are genuinely impressive. Zoe Saldana gives a decent performance too, giving voice to Neytiri the Na’vi princess whom Jake Sully falls in love with while Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Joel David Moore are likeable in the supporting roles as members of the Avatar program’s team. The most memorable character though is likely Stephen Lang’s Colonel which, while written and performed to type, is gloriously alpha-male that he is even able to breath Pandora’s poisonous atmosphere without constant help of respirators.
Overall, the story and performances in Avatar are generally average and predictable but the effects, the visualisation of an alien world, the intense action sequences and effective use of 3D (in cinemas) means the enjoyment of the spectacle, or the experience of seeing Avatar, overcome many of its flaws. It is ‘must see cinema’.
Rating: 4/5 if seen in 3D, 3/5 if not.
